Law enforcement intelligence-processing fusion centers have long come under attack for spying on Americans. The Arkansas director wanted to clarify the truth: centers only spies on some Americans – those who appear to be a threat to the government.

In trying to clear up the ‘misconceptions’ about the conduct of
fusion centers, Arkansas State Fusion Center Director Richard Davis
simply confirmed Americans’ fears: the center does in fact
spy on Americans – but only on those who are suspected to be
‘anti-government’.

“The misconceptions are that we are conducting spying
operations on US citizens, which is of course not a fact. That is
absolutely not what we do,” he told the NWA Homepage, which
supports KNWA-TV and Fox 24.

After claiming that his office ‘absolutely’ does not spy on
Americans, he proceeded to explain that this does not apply to
those who could be interpreted as a ‘threat’ to national security.
Davis said his office places its focus on international plots,
“domestic terrorism and certain groups that are anti-government.
We want to kind of take a look at that and receive that
information.”

But the First Amendment allows for the freedom of speech and
opinion, making it lawfully acceptable for Americans to express
their grievances against the US government. The number of
anti-government groups even hit a record high in 2012, according to
the Southern Poverty Law Center. Many of these groups are ‘hate
groups’ that express disdain for minorities. But unless they become
violent, these groups are legally allowed to exist.

“We are seeing the fourth straight year of really explosive
growth on the part of anti-government patriot groups and
militias,” Mark Potok, senior fellow at the SPLC, told Mother
Jones. “That’s 913 percent in growth. We’ve never seen that kind
of growth in any group we cover.”

And with a record-high number of anti-government groups, fusion
centers may be spying on more Americans than ever before – or at
least, have the self-proclaimed right to do so.

“I do what I do because of what happened on 9/11,” Davis
said. “There’s this urge and this feeling inside that you want
to do something, and this is a perfect opportunity for me.”

But Davis’ argument is flawed: in order to determine whether or
not someone is considered a threat to national security, fusion
centers would first have to spy on Americans to weed out the
suspected individuals, and then proceed to spy on the
‘anti-government’ individuals further.

Across the US, fusion centers have reported on individuals who
conducted ‘crimes’ like putting political stickers in public
bathrooms or participating in movements against the death penalty.
In October, the bipartisan Senate Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations finished a two-year investigation
on fusion centers, only to find that the centers had directly
violated constitutionally protected civil liberties.

“In reality, the Subcommittee investigation found that the
fusion centers often produced irrelevant, useless or inappropriate
intelligence reporting to DHS, and many produced no intelligence
reporting whatsoever,” the report stated.

And the privacy violations could soon become worse: RT
previously reported
that the FBI’s proposed facial recognition project could provide
fusion centers with more personal data to work with. With at least
72 fusion centers across the US and technology that could further
infringe upon privacy rights, government agencies will be able to
more efficiently collect data on Americans solely for exercising
their freedom of speech.